ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Phillip McDonald equaled a career-high with 27 points and Drew Gordon added a double-double to lead New Mexico to a 68-61 victory over Colorado State on Wednesday night.
The Lobos (13-4, 1-1 Mountain West) never trailed, but they needed a McDonald 3-pointer with 47.6 seconds left to finally put away the Rams (11-5, 1-1).
“He was hard to guard tonight,” coach Steve Alford said of McDonald. “He took good shots.”
Dorian Green scored 20 points to lead Colorado State, which lost for an eighth consecutive season at New Mexico.
Gordon had 15 points and 16 rebounds.
For the second time this season, a New Mexico home game was interrupted by a fire alarm in the newly remodeled arena. This time the game was stopped and the arena was evacuated with 1 second left in the first half when emergency lights started flashing and an alarm sounded. The game resumed after a 38-minute delay.
School officials said a fire alarm was deliberately pulled.
New Mexico led 36-24 early in the second half before Colorado State began to whittle down the lead. The Rams pulled to within 58-57 with 1:36 left after Andy Ogide hit two free throws.
Colorado State still trailed by a point with less than a minute remaining when McDonald hit a 3 to put New Mexico up 63-59.
The Lobos held on from there to hand the Rams just their second loss in nine games and improve to 4-0 after a defeat.
New Mexico lost its Mountain West opener to Wyoming 67-66 on a shot at the buzzer.
“It was a very difficult game for us,” Alford said. “There was a lot of pressure on our young guys. ... I just thought they did a really good job of bouncing back.”